Sorry that you had a poor experience. We're working on improving the indication that the extension is indeed working as expected when you install it.

Please see https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/31109 for some ideas on that.

Unlike the webpage badge where you were required to opt-in, the extension is "on" by default. We reasoned that opting-in was necessary for the webpage badge so that the casual user doesn't begin proxying traffic without their consent. However, since the user explicitly requested to install the extension, it's safe to begin proxying right away.

For reference, see this conversation https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/30934#comment:18

Note that there is an "on"/"off" toggle to conveniently disable the extension without needing to uninstall it.

Also note that, at present, there're probably more proxies (ie. people who have installed the extension) than clients (ie. censored users trying to use the system) so you might not see many connections yet. Again, we're still working on how to frame this in the UI so that people who have installed the extension understand that it's working and useful. See the aforementioned task.

Thanks for trying it out.